New Raw.......and throwing up ? 😩

Mrcclms

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8 days ago I transitioned from:

Home cooked (boiled) turkey + cooked liver + boiled pumpkin

To

Darwin's Raw Turkey



Everything seemed fine.

Then 2 days ago my cat threw up in the morning, seemed undigested food. Yesterday night again, lot of food, I would say the whole daily food he had.

And this morning again as soon as I woke up.


Anybody has experience with this ? Could the raw be hard on his stomach ? Can this happen when switching from cooked to raw ?

Thanks :(
 

darg

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Seems a bit strange that he tolerated the new food fine for 6 days before seemingly having an issue with it. You may consider trying going back to what your were feeding before the transition. If he's still throws up with the old food, it's probably a good idea to make sure nothing else is going on by seeing your Vet.
 

dhammagirl

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Yeah, this can happen. It can help to more slowly transition to raw, giving small amounts of raw along with the current food, gradually increasing the amount of raw, giving the digestive system time to adjust to the raw food.
Good luck!:petcat:
 

di and bob

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Of course. Anytime there is a change in a cats diet there could be upset in their system. It takes time to develop new stomach enzymes to digest what is introduced and that takes a while. My cats have done the same thing when I changed from a cheap diet to a all meat one. I was up all night cleaning up throw up...... The way to go is to introduce it gradually. First give just a small amount and do it for a week while still giving at least 75% of their old diet. Then gradually work in more and more of the new diet over several weeks. This way the stomach and digestive sytem can make new/different enzymes, etc. to handle the new diet. PS it takes several days for all the old diet to work it's way out of teh cat's system, keeping things 'calm'. Then when that is gone teh new food overwhelms the system....
 
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Mrcclms

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I did not do a proper transition because I thought that the change was minimal going from home cooked boiled turkey to raw turkey

Now I feel stupid

now I'm not sure what should I do

Go back to the cooked one

Stick to Darwin's and let it settle hopefully

Or mix the 2





Right now he is begging for food but he threw up 3 times since yesterday and maybe I should wait for his stomach to rest ?!
 

di and bob

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Don't feel stupid, i have done things much worse!! I would go back to his old diet for a few days till his stomach settles and then gradually introduce the new. that should work!
 
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Mrcclms

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Thanks, doing that.


A question:


Are there companies out there similar to Darwin's that deliver a similar product but COOKED ?
 

di and bob

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I saw one on teh internet...My Perfect Pet Lightly Cooked cat food, you might check it out, it comes frozen I take it. I would just research it on teh internet, there are bound to be more!
 

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Darwin's also contains a lot of new ingredients for your kitty, including bone.

I thought you were doing the cooked chicken with Alnutrition? Did that not go well?
 
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Mrcclms

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I did the home cooked turkey + pumpkin + liver for 2 months with alnutrin

But it was time consuming



He is throwing up again, I'm worried, I'll go to the vet
 

Azazel

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If he was doing fine on it though I would honestly just put him back on it.

Good idea to see a vet if the throwing up doesn’t stop when you go back on the food he does well on. There may a different underlying issue.
 

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If he was doing fine on it though I would honestly just put him back on it.
That's what I'd do, too. Particularly if the Alnutrin that you were feeding, Mrcclms Mrcclms , had eggshell calcium. As Azazel mentioned above, the Darwins food has bone and that could make a big difference.

I did the home cooked turkey + pumpkin + liver for 2 months with alnutrin

But it was time consuming
I just made a batch of Alnutrin today so I hear you! I'm not sure how you were handling the cooked turkey for it, but I will say that using a food processor is what makes the whole endeavor bearable. (Today's batch was half chopped by hand, half processed. Sometimes I chop it all in the processor.)

First off, though, I hope your cat stops throwing up soon!
 
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Mrcclms

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Id like to ask this to cat owners with experience.



The first vomiting was Friday Night....prior to that he was doing great, eating well, perfect stool every 2-3 days

Friday night the first vomiting was a small amount of waterish food with a BALL OF HAIR in it.

Since then (around 36 hours ago) he vomited 4 other times, after every eating, no sign of hair in them


Could be the hairball he expelled that caused irritation (and an habit to vomit) and now he tends to vomit super easily ?
 

Azazel

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Hmm, I think you should put him back on the previous diet with pumpkin and monitor. If he vomits again, go to the vet. It could be the bone in the new food causing the poor digestion and hairball. If you have some raw egg yolk you can give him a little and see if it helps. It tends to help with hairballs. It could be that he has one that needs to come up. Is he still eating?

The pumpkin will help with digesting it too.

If he stops eating, vet immediately.
 
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Mrcclms

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Yes he keeps asking for food

Not sure if I should try the "hairball gel" I have


So hard to decide and honestly I think the vet himself will not have a certain answer
 

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The ball of hair kind of change my thoughts on this. We've had similar issues with one of our cats this summer: she's vomited more than usual/ever, often with small balls of hair. I'm fairly sure that a few dietary changes were the reason.

Personally, I'd take the cat (what's his name?) off the Darwin's and put him back on the Alnutrin in the version you'd been feeding it before. Egg yolk's an emulsifier so it can be very useful, either raw or cooked; there's no egg yolk in the Darwin's but there's some in Alnutrin. I've been adding more (cooked) to our cats' meals ever since Edwina's vomiting issues started. We brush her daily (oops, I still need to do that!) and have noticed that missed days often result in problems. When she was very bad, during the summer, I even dosed her with small amounts of Vaseline (as described on the Food Fur Life site).

Another bit of a theory on this: How fatty was the turkey you'd been feeding in the Alnutrin? If you were feeding very lean meat, higher fat and the lack of egg yolk in the Darwin's could be a factor. Fat in Darwin's is 27% dry matter, which isn't especially high (according to Dr. Pierson) but, well, fat is what binds the fur together. And even small changes in diet -- from some egg yolk to no egg and from very low fat to low-to-moderate fat -- can make a big difference for a cat.

I was just about to post and saw the question about the hairball gel. I'd probably go ahead and do it. (And then watch the litterbox to see if fur comes through.) I'm also glad he's asking for food! That's good.
 
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mwallace056

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The ball of hair kind of change my thoughts on this. We've had similar issues with one of our cats this summer: she's vomited more than usual/ever, often with small balls of hair. I'm fairly sure that a few dietary changes were the reason.

Personally, I'd take the cat (what's his name?) off the Darwin's and put him back on the Alnutrin in the version you'd been feeding it before. Egg yolk's an emulsifier so it can be very useful, either raw or cooked; there's no egg yolk in the Darwin's but there's some in Alnutrin. I've been adding more (cooked) to our cats' meals ever since Edwina's vomiting issues started. We brush her daily (oops, I still need to do that!) and have noticed that missed days often result in problems. When she was very bad, during the summer, I even dosed her with small amounts of Vaseline (as described on the Food Fur Life site).

Another bit of a theory on this: How fatty was the turkey you'd been feeding in the Alnutrin? If you were feeding very lean meat, higher fat and the lack of egg yolk in the Darwin's could be a factor. Fat in Darwin's is 27% dry matter, which isn't especially high (according to Dr. Pierson) but, well, fat is what binds the fur together. And even small changes in diet -- from some egg yolk to no egg and from very low fat to low-to-moderate fat -- can make a big difference for a cat.

I was just about to post and saw the question about the hairball gel. I'd probably go ahead and do it. (And then watch the litterbox to see if fur comes through.) I'm also glad he's asking for food! That's good.
just letting you know that your link didn't take me to the Food Fur Life site, it took me to this El arte de la resurrección (The Art of Resurrection) « Three Percent so you might want to double check your link.
 
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Mrcclms

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The ball of hair kind of change my thoughts on this. We've had similar issues with one of our cats this summer: she's vomited more than usual/ever, often with small balls of hair. I'm fairly sure that a few dietary changes were the reason.

Personally, I'd take the cat (what's his name?) off the Darwin's and put him back on the Alnutrin in the version you'd been feeding it before. Egg yolk's an emulsifier so it can be very useful, either raw or cooked; there's no egg yolk in the Darwin's but there's some in Alnutrin. I've been adding more (cooked) to our cats' meals ever since Edwina's vomiting issues started. We brush her daily (oops, I still need to do that!) and have noticed that missed days often result in problems. When she was very bad, during the summer, I even dosed her with small amounts of Vaseline (as described on the Food Fur Life site).

Another bit of a theory on this: How fatty was the turkey you'd been feeding in the Alnutrin? If you were feeding very lean meat, higher fat and the lack of egg yolk in the Darwin's could be a factor. Fat in Darwin's is 27% dry matter, which isn't especially high (according to Dr. Pierson) but, well, fat is what binds the fur together. And even small changes in diet -- from some egg yolk to no egg and from very low fat to low-to-moderate fat -- can make a big difference for a cat.

I was just about to post and saw the question about the hairball gel. I'd probably go ahead and do it. (And then watch the litterbox to see if fur comes through.) I'm also glad he's asking for food! That's good.
Thanks for this.

Yes I was cooking big breast of turkey and I removed the fat. And being boiled the fat was dissolved I guess.

Do you guys know if there is a company out there similar to Darwin's with lower levels of fat and maybe no bone ?

I really liked Darwin's because the patties are pre-rationed and easy to feed. And no cooking involved
 

lisahe

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just letting you know that your link didn't take me to the Food Fur Life site, it took me to this El arte de la resurrección (The Art of Resurrection) « Three Percent so you might want to double check your link.
Oops, sorry about that, thank you M mwallace056 !

Thanks for this.

Yes I was cooking big breast of turkey and I removed the fat. And being boiled the fat was dissolved I guess.

Do you guys know if there is a company out there similar to Darwin's with lower levels of fat and maybe no bone ?

I really liked Darwin's because the patties are pre-rationed and easy to feed. And no cooking involved
The only one I know about with no bone is Stella & Chewy's Selects, though the fat looks to be about the same as the Darwin's. We do feed those to our cats and they like them. They're also pre-portioned and easy to feed. The biggest downside to those is that they're pretty expensive, about $11 a bag. I just feed one a day to each cat, as a snack.
 

Show Me Your Kitties

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Thanks for this.

Yes I was cooking big breast of turkey and I removed the fat. And being boiled the fat was dissolved I guess.

Do you guys know if there is a company out there similar to Darwin's with lower levels of fat and maybe no bone ?

I really liked Darwin's because the patties are pre-rationed and easy to feed. And no cooking involved
Not sure about the fat percentage in comparison to Darwin's, but I know Balanced Blends does not use bone in their raw food. They also offer a lightly steamed version of their meals.

Species Balanced™ Raw Variety Pack for Cats

You could look into it to see if it's what you're looking for.

I hope you find something that works for your cat!
 
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